Two months into my quest to serve the less fortunate last year I attended Ken Wytsma’s brain child, The Justice Conference. To say that it rocked my life is an understatement. The weekend was my “Matrix.” I arrived as Neo and Wytsma stood as my Morpheus. I took the red pill.
Closing the book after the last chapter of Wytsma’s (with D.R. Jacobsen) latest work, Pursuing Justice: The Call to Live and Die for Bigger Things, I believe he slipped me another pill.
Pages of Pursuing Justice fill my brain with reminders of our world’s injustice as well as new-to-me information. I can’t un-know what I know. To do nothing with this knowledge would only add to the intolerance.
I’m not alone. Wytsma writes, “People are hungry for justice. They want justice for those they know who are suffering injustice. They want it for themselves and for their communities. They want to practice justice, experience justice, and know God through the universal quality of justice. These things are what God wants too.”
Social justice carries around the label of “trendy” lately. And maybe it is. If the 80’s were about self-indulgence and the 90’s were about self-pity, maybe this new millennium is about self-fulfillment. What better way to boast a self-fulfilled life than to make sure we live each day with meaning?
Pursuing Justice won’t only take a place on my bookshelf, it takes a place in my soul. “Justice is about knowing God as much as it is about serving God.”
Hi there!
This was such a thoughtful and well-written review. I appreciate the way you highlight the key takeaways from Pursuing Justice and provide insightful reflections on its message. Your perspective adds depth to the discussion and makes me even more interested in exploring the book. Thank you for sharing your thoughts!